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Live interactive ads for Nintendo Wii are given the silver screen treatment
The first-ever live cinema ads involving a mother and son tennis match for Nintendo by live communications agency CommentUK in conjunction with Carlton Screen Advertising are launching nationwide this weekend.
The purpose of the live ad is to demonstrate to target audiences how easy and how much fun it is to play the Nintendo Wii Sports package.
The campaign features two actors playing Wii tennis live with the game they are playing projected onto the big screen itself. The campaign runs in cinemas to coincide with the opening weekend of Pirates of the Caribbean 3. There will be 5 teams of 2 Performers operating nationally across 9 different cinema sites over two weekends.
The interactive live cinema ads will take place in Picturehouse cinemas. This Saturday venues include Clapham, Greenwich, Stratford East, Cambridge and Liverpool. Next Saturday they include Edinburgh, York, Southampton and Brixton.
The ad
The ad reel plays in the darkened auditorium as usual, but the two actors are present amongst the audience. Steve, an achingly cool teenager sits near the front. Unbeknown to him, his mother, Elsa, enters the auditorium in search of her son. At the appropriate moment during the on-screen commercials, the ad reel is stopped and the house lights come on. Steve’s mum bustles in and calls her son embarrassingly from the darkness.
What follows is a living hell for Steve as his mother challenges him to a rematch of Nintendo Wii tennis there and then in front of an audience of total strangers. Preferring to lose some of his cool rather then look cowardly Steve takes up the challenge. He soon forgets his embarrassment as he becomes caught up in the game.
Dean McKain MD of CommentUK (pictured) comments: "The live, interactive ad superbly illustrates that Nintendo Wii Sports is for all ages and demonstrates just how exciting and easy it is to play.
"We expect to reach thousands of cinema goers over the next two weeks, and as we know that recall rates for this type of live communication are huge (as much as 89% after 4 weeks), we feel sure that the word of mouth viral effect of the activity will have a positive impact for the brand.”
Released in November 2006 Wii Sports offers five distinct sports experiences, each using the Wii Remote controller. To play a Wii Sports game, all you need to do is pick up a controller and get ready for the pitch, serve or that right hook.
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As innovative as the whole idea is it´s hard to understand why would any bestselling product need another gimmick?
The Wii´s been on the top gift item eversince it was launched......
left by: jks on Sat 26 May 2007
Rating: 3 / 5
THE WII Sports pkg is great but to my suprise,i went to buy additional interactive games to play, like the sports pkg but disappointingly realized the wii has the ability to play a game as if your really in that games envioronmrnt. i.e. bowling alley. Majority of games are the normal combat ones like xbox, and all the rest. if wii was entirely interactive only creating games like on the sports pkg and not using the norm games of yesterday then i feel it would be a more positively received, have a future going toward the games which you use a headset and it seems like the person is living that game live. now those are todays exciting games. In my opinion
gayle
left by: Gayle Lawyer-Schlichter on Tue 18 Mar 2008
The purpose of the live ad is to demonstrate to target audiences how easy and how much fun it is to play the Nintendo Wii Sports package.
